There’s also Depp’s crooked art dealer - the eventual corpse - and Josh Gad as his right-hand man the cast is so deep that Derek Jacobi barely rates a mention.īut one star forces the others into his orbit, and that is Branagh himself.
#TRAIN MURDER MOVIE 2017 MOVIE#
The paying customers on this particular trip naturally resemble a game of “Clue.” There’s a thirsty heiress (Michelle Pfeiffer), a missionary (Penélope Cruz), a plainclothes Nazi (Willem Dafoe), a smattering of royalty that ranges in age from Judi Dench to “Sing Street” breakout Lucy Boynton, a governess (Daisy Ridley, holding her own without a lightsaber in her hands), and the man she loves in secret (“Hamilton” MVP Leslie Odom Jr., a movie star in the making). A gilded mahogany serpent so refined that passengers are inspired to wear tuxedos to the dining car (and directors are inspired to weave through the cabins in elegant tracking shots that bring us right on board), the Orient Express is an exclusive experience for a certain class of people. The fastest way there: The Orient Express, one of those first class sleeper that America dumped in favor of Amtrak. The world is between wars, winter is settling in, and famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is being summoned back to Britain for his next case. You know the plot, even if you’ve forgotten the twist. Or, more accurately, how refreshing it would have felt had Branagh understood why Christie’s story has stood the test of time.
![train murder movie 2017 train murder movie 2017](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xoE38U2Qxww/XBLNtDL6AAI/AAAAAAAA7RU/AYE6k7fZ_Y090D7Gr2c-SWP6WESXOTqWwCEwYBhgL/s1600/murder-on-the-orient-express-train-stuck-in-snow-in-the-alps.jpg)
Indeed, it’s hard to overstate just how refreshing it feels to see a snug, gilded piece of studio entertainment that doesn’t involve any spandex. Arrestingly sumptuous from the very first shot (and filmed in glorious 65mm), this cozy new riff on Agatha Christie’s classic mystery is such an old-fashioned yarn that it could have been made back in 1934 if not for all the terrible CGI snow and a late-career, post-disgrace Johnny Depp performance that reeks of 21st century fatigue. A movie about how much of a royal pain in the ass it was to kill someone before civilians had easy access to AR-15s, Kenneth Branagh’s “ Murder on the Orient Express” is an undercooked Christmas ham of a movie, the kind of flamboyant holiday feast that Hollywood doesn’t really serve anymore.